Great Western Coffee Shop

GWR have published their timetables from 13th December 2020.  As far as the local train service from Reading to Didcot/Oxford in the evening peak is concerned it's disappointing that the oddly timed 1701 Reading - Banbury (which misses out Tilehurst and Pangbourne but calls at Goring and Cholsey, possibly at variance with the SLC, then sits at Didcot for 11 minutes) is unaltered, a full year after it was assumed that NR/GWR ran out of time to time it as a more useful service.

But on a positive note there is a new 1652 from Reading to all stations to Didcot (1556 from Paddington), which fills the hour's gap for Tilehurst and Pangbourne passengers between 1625 and 1725.  (Belated edit - this train was in the May 2020 timetable, it just hasn't run for a while.)

What trains actually run, of course, relies upon Covid effects.

Arise, ye travellers from Tilehurst and Pangbourne! To your doorsteps at 1701, to clap and cheer! Because this freak train service, this aberration of train planning, this runt Turbo that achieved little other than cluttering up the DR and confusing passengers, is GONE!

It should be remembered – unaffectionately - only as a case study (other examples may be available) in the “How not to plan a train service” module of the induction programme for train planners in Milton Keynes, India or wherever they do these things nowadays.

I refer, of course, to the 1701 Reading – Banbury, which from 25th January starts at Didcot.

Meanwhile, the fair burghers of Goring and Cholsey weep that their first - and only - Class 1 service from the Reading metropolis has been snatched, so cruelly, away  :'(

 ;D

At times, I think we need a "LOL" as well as a "like" button.

There have been other services around which, charitably, could be described as running "for historic reasons" and some of those are being thinned out at the moment.  Due care and attention needed to help ensure that the thinning does not result in the permanent loss of useful but operationally inconvenient services.


But ... is that "Class 1" just a status label, or do you loose first class travel, catering services, ....